Our office has been on leave over the past couple of weeks, like many other businesses in the country, and as we return, the state of COVID-19 in South Africa has reached highly concerning levels. Looking at the latest report from the National Department of Health (NDoH), the past 24 hours has seen 17 421 new cases being recorded.
As such, it does little to quell rumours that the country could be placed in another hard lockdown, especially as new infections are the same as they were during the South Africa’s first big wave last year.
While that status is yet to be confirmed by government, the rest of the numbers in the latest report make for grim reading.
This as the total number of cases for COVID-19 in South Africa now sits at over 1.2 million. 1 231 597 to be more precise, with over 7.18 million tests having been conducted to date, as well as 966 368 recoveries. The latter sees the recovery rate at 78.4 percent, which a sharp drop from the low 90 percent rate we saw in late November last year.
The number of new daily fatalities has also risen sharply, with the past 24 hours seeing 339 deaths. This results in the total number of fatalities related to COVID-19 in South Africa rise to 33 163.
The full breakdown of COVID-19 in South Africa is as follows:
Provinces | Confirmed Cases | Recoveries | Active cases | Deaths |
Western Cape | 241 001 | 186 403 | 54 598 | 8 187 |
Eastern Cape | 180 689 | 165 060 | 15 629 | 8 739 |
Northern Cape | 27 648 | 23 529 | 2 859 | 444 |
Free State | 66 760 | 56 172 | 10 588 | 2 295 |
KwaZulu-Natal | 252 115 | 154 240 | 97 875 | 5 241 |
North West | 46 451 | 35 741 | 10 710 | 703 |
Mpumalanga | 45 894 | 37 370 | 8 524 | 707 |
Gauteng | 333 842 | 281 400 | 52 442 | 6 170 |
Limpopo | 37 197 | 26 453 | 10 744 | 677 |
Unknown | 0 | |||
TOTAL | 1 231 597 | 966 368 | 265 229 | 33 163 |
As always, in order to stay up to date with the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and abroad, we advise the following materials and platforms:
- Dr Zweli Mkhize on Twitter
- COVID-19 Connect on WhatsApp – add 0600 123 456 as a contact and say “Hi”.
- World Health Organisation
- SA Coronavirus website
- SA Government
- SA Presidency